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from the When-you-see-the-Southern-Cross-for-the-first-time dept.
NASA panorama reveals starry glory of the southern sky
The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite is a planet hunter extraordinaire that gets to gaze deeply into space. This[*] circular image represents TESS' view of the southern sky, complete with a stunning appearance by the Milky Way.
NASA released the mosaic on Tuesday. It consists of 208 images taken in TESS' first year of operation through July 2019. The spacecraft trained its four cameras on 13 different sections of the southern sky and spent nearly a month watching each area.
TESS is looking for the telltale dimming of stars that shows exoplanets have passed in front of them.
[...] TESS is now focused on imaging the northern sky, where astronomers expect to find many more potential exoplanets.
[*] Image can be viewed on c|net or as part of a 2m36s YouTube video.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Wednesday November 06 2019, @06:38PM
Look at this image: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:TESS_science_sector_suddivision.jpg [wikipedia.org]
Some parts will get observed for a lot longer than ~1 month.
And that is only the plan for the first 2 years. After that, they could change up the plans and observe a smaller portion of the sky for a longer time.
If you can find exoplanets with periods from 1-6 months, some might be habitable around red dwarfs.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]